What are your thoughts on Betrayalfest overall?

[Ryan E. Walters]

Lousy craftsmanship but an intellectual, thought-provoking story? That'll probably get a 7 or higher.

Interesting idea, while I applaud the concept / thought behind that statement, if there is lousy craftsmanship it is still getting a lower score from me. A story would have to be VERY compelling for me to be able to watch watch it all the way through and over look the poor craftsmanship. And I guess it really comes down to poor audio craftsmanship- if the audio is bad, hard to hear / understand / follow, then it doesn't matter to me what the content is - and usually, when there is poor craftsmanship the audio suffers the most. I'll put up with a poorly shot and edited film if I can follow it, it has compelling content, and the audio is decent. That type of thing- I'll agree with you. But sadly, I think that is not the norm when there is poor / lousy craftsmanship.

[Bigmagic]

When I'm rating a film, I pretty much categorize it as "would I want to watch this again?" or "what was the overall enjoyment factor here?" If it's a comedy and there's a flaw in the filmmaking (bad sound, or awful acting, or whatever) but the overall experience had me laughing so hard I fell off the chair -- then that film gets a 9. If there's no flaw, it's a 10.

But if the flaw is so egregious that it damages the enjoyment out of watching the film, then it doesn't matter how good the cinematography is or how good the acting was or how good the musical score was -- if I didn't enjoy it and wouldn't watch it again, it gets rated way down.

The way I look at it, these are films. They're not acting reels, they're not cinematography reels, they're not vfx reels. It's all about the whole homogenized experience.

Lousy craftsmanship but an intellectual, thought-provoking story? That'll probably get a 7 or higher. Masterful craftsmanship but a pointless story? That'll probably get a three or a four.

Masterful craftsmanship and a great story? That's a 10. Lousy craftsmanship and a pointless story? That's a 1.

Well said Barry, I mostly agree, I guess that's why Avatar didn't do so well tonight. Personally I can be swayed by visuals or sound but #1 for me is the story. I am a movie junkie and I own a lot of short films that were created by the filmmakers on this site over the last five years. My personal movie collection runs the gamut from Trauma films on up. I do have my favorites but at least a couple of times a year at my house we have "cheesy horror night" or "Zombie night" etc. I find it hard to give anyone who enters a score under a 5. My range is more like

1.5-7 needs work
2. 7 to 8 works for me on some level
3. 8 to 9 impressive
4. 10 you are too good to be doing dvxuser fests

I have found something I like about most of the films I have seen and I haven't struggled at all watching them. Most I have found entertaining, some border on brilliant. Thanks to all the filmmakers for making this a great fest.

[GoodLuck]

Oh shi*. Ten is highest?

You've been doing it backwards haven't you. #1 does not mean #1.

[CallaghanFilms]

As promised...

The Callaghan Top 5 BetrayalFesties

#1 ROM
Favorite Bit of Dialogue:
It must be difficult to make decisions…being human.

#2 Voices From the Dark
Favorite Bit of Dialogue:
*Spoiler Alert*
Some of us got voices we gotta deal with. Voices. Our own voices. People’s voices. Dead voices. (beat) Every night. Whole lotta bad messed up, don’t-let-your-mother-know-things I’ve done, kid…

#3 Stretched
Favorite Bit of Dialogue:
*Spoiler Alert*
…I’ve an anchor and a sail in my chest. And rope. And waves. And compass. And…this we could have been. (beat) You shouldn’t have done what you did…

#4 The End
Favorite Bit of Dialogue:
*Spoiler Alert*
Legs. Hips. Waist. Lips. Eyes. Hair. How can I resist something that was meant for me?
…Legs. Hips. Waist. Is she worth the risk?

#5 Mirror, Mirror
Favorite Bit of Dialogue:
You Bitch.
Close Enough.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Hey I finally made the Callagan list! Woot!

[CallaghanFilms]

Well deserved, sir

[Mike@AF]

It would probably be a good idea if they put the rating instructions on the rating page. It looks like people are confused about how to rate and how it works. That could hurt some films and help some unintentionally.

[Jason Ramsey]

It would probably be a good idea if they put the rating instructions on the rating page. It looks like people are confused about how to rate and how it works. That could hurt some films and help some unintentionally.

There are actually abbreviated instructions, as well as links to the viewing thread and official rules thread if you are not logged in...

later,
Jason

[Mike@AF]

There are actually abbreviated instructions, as well as links to the viewing thread and official rules thread if you are not logged in...

later,
Jason

That's good, but it appears there's members that are not understanding and are most likely logged in when they go to the page. Just a thought.

EDIT: It's most likely due to people not reading the voting thread for the info on how it works.

[dre83]

Sound is one of the most imported things... it just is....

When sound is bad, viewers will loose there attention, when they loose there
attention they have to think, when they have to think they get borred.... When they get borred, the bad cameramovements, bad lightning, bad decoration also get's borred.

When the sound is very good and the cameramovement very bad, viewers wil think "oww it belongs to the 'artificial stuff' "

Bad sound is never artificial accepted.

And for the ranking, what I do is do a kind of "pre-rank". And then an average.

sound 3/10 light 5/10 story 7/10 decoration 6/10 VFX 8/10
total: 3+5+7+6+8 = 29
29/5 = 5,8
So 6 would be the score here